The "Building Blind" rifle is finished

[axelp]

outstanding and inspirational.

K

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Remarkable work, and you must be so satisfied!!  Congratulations to you both.

[Ian Pratt]

Just fantastic, congratulations to both of you and thank you Dave for sharing this. Wonderful job!

[Tim Crosby]

   Wonderful job guys, as we all know after the first it is not easy to stop so....What's next?

     Tim   

[tallbear]

Very cool Dave....very cool!!!!!!!

[tlallijr]

Great job Dave and Josh the rifle turned out beautiful !!

[smart dog]

Hi,

Thanks to all of you for following Josh and I on the "Building Blind" thread and this finale.  I appreciate the comments very much but they really inspire and motivate Josh.  I copy all of them and e-mail them to his wife.  His life is not easy and this was an outlet for him that was almost pure joy.  I want to make clear that I did a lot of the work, particularly during the final stages.  However, we found many ways to keep Josh active in the process.  For example, when designing the carving and inlays, obviously he cannot see a design drawn on paper or the stock.  So I would draw a design on card stock and cut it out.  Josh could then feel the outline and place it on the stock to see if he liked it.  Same with the style of star inlay.  I was sure he would prefer my "Star of Bethlehem" design, which we used,  over the Moravian and traditional hunter's stars but I gave him all three to feel.  So he was involved in designing the carving as well as removing and smoothing the background surrounding it.  He did a great job.  I had him practicing with my Lindsay Airgraver cutting brass and steel and I am convinced that he might have been able to engrave the border lines on the patch box and inlays.  We just ran out of time and opportunities for him to travel to my shop owing to the pandemic.  Again, thank you all for your support and encouragement.  Never look down or be condescending to someone with a disability, because you may be looking at someone with a very heroic soul.



dave

[smart dog]

Oh, my word! If a sightless person can build that, it would be foolish of me to ask how he will shoot a deer with it.

Hi,
He will hunt with a friend who will actually sight his rifle over his shoulder.  I designed the sights with that in mind so someone can see the sight picture easily looking over his shoulder.  Josh shoots woods walks and killed several turkeys with a flintlock that way.

dave 

[smart dog]

   Wonderful job guys, as we all know after the first it is not easy to stop so....What's next?

     Tim

Hi Tim,
The next project with Josh will be a New England fowler. He is saving up for a good barrel and we will use the parts from a horrible India-made smoothbore that he owns and was sold to him as a fine trade gun reproduction.  The seller cheated him because he could not see what he was buying and charged him almost twice the retail price.  Nonetheless, Josh killed a turkey with it.  Pretty remarkable huh?  Anyway, we are going to make a silver purse from a sou's ear.  We will discard the barrel and stock.  We will salvage all the brass parts and Josh and I will convert them to high quality components for a NE fowler.  The lock has so much excess metal that I can turn it into a good copy of an imported lock from the time.  In the end, we should be able to produce a really credible NE fowler from the mid 18th century.  However, that project is a year away, at least. For those who say, why bother with all the effort to make a poor product work, well Josh cannot afford purchasing any alternatives.  So we make do with what we have and I know many of you understand that principle.

dave     

[Sandy]

Looking forward to following you and Josh in the next installment.

[Kingsburyarms]

Dave, it has already been said, but I'll say it again, you're a saint for working with Josh - and he is the luckiest guy in Vermont. Looking forward to the fowler -

Jon

[Bob Roller]

Many years ago a local gun trader wanted me to alter a modern revolver so he
could trade it to a blind man for another gun he wanted.I told him to get out of my
shop and to never return for any reason.This level of low living had to start at the bottom
and goes down from there and to the man who cheated this young man I wish him a severe
case of Montezuma's revenge.

Bob Roller


 

[Notchy Bob]

I don't see any flaws at all.  The rifle is outstanding!  The Dale Johnson lock was an excellent choice.  That little bit of downturn at the rear of the lockplate is perfect for this rifle.

It's cool that Josh named the rifle after his teacher.  I have a tremendous respect and admiration for teachers and educators.

Notchy Bob

[Clint]

Dave,
We read posts all the time about 'my first kit' or something like that. The rifle that you built with Josh is an order of magnitude beyond most of the builds today. My only question, retoric as it might be, is "why are not men like you running this country?
Clint W

[smart dog]

Hi Clint,
LOL!!!   I'm afraid that I am too introverted to be a public persona.

dave

[smart dog]

Hi,
Thanks for commenting and being interested in Josh's building project.  I do want to emphasize that I supervised the entire process closely and we had many discussions about the history of the guns, design, and function.  In truth, if I worked that closely with any first time builder, I am sure the result would be very close to Josh's gun as long as the builder didn't club me for hovering like an annoying bee during some critical tasks. In Josh's case that was not a problem because he could not see me hovering and I can be really quiet so it did not annoy him .  Nonetheless, Josh did a great deal on the gun and many tasks more or less independently.  The extent of his involvement was astonishing and he mastered tasks like inletting parts, shaping wood surfaces to plan and evenly, smoothing wood around carving, soldering, metal shaping, etc.  The real value is he takes those skills home and uses them to make powder horns and other muzzle loading accessories.  The experience and training makes his work on those projects better and expands his ideas of what he can accomplish.

Josh and his wife are coming over today to pick up the rifle.  We will shoot it a bit as well.  I shot it extensively Friday and Saturday to get it sighted in so he can take it hunting.  It shoots well but that took some work because the edges of the lands were so sharp they shredded patches.  I lapped the bore extensively Friday night and that solved the problem.  The barrel definitely wants powder and best groups resulted using 85 grains 2F powder.  I expect they might even get better with over 90 grains but ran out of time to experiment.  Before lapping the bore, it definitely did not like 3f Swiss powder.  That may be OK now after dulling the lands.  I'll get a photo or 2 of Josh shooting. Obviously, he has to have someone aim it over his shoulder but as long as he can hold steady and fire when the sights are on, he does pretty well.

Thanks again everyone for supporting Josh and I thank you for your kind words to me, but this is Josh's story and he really beams when I read him your encouraging words.

dave         

[Pukka Bundook]

My hat's off to both of you, Josh and Dave!

Wonderful to see such dedication.

[hawkeye]

Great looking rifle for a starting blind builder, hats off

[BOB HILL]

Quite an accomplishment, gentlemen.
Bob